In modern complex technical installations, a control system which registers the states of all the parts of the installation at each point in time during operation and makes all the information necessary for operating the technical installation available to the operating personnel is used for controlling production. It is also possible to use protection systems, which in hazardous situations quickly and reliably shut down all the respectively affected sections of the installation or components—independently of other systems—to avert damage to material and personnel. It is additionally possible to use a system for maintaining operation, in which all the data necessary for advance planning of the operation of the technical installation are managed, such as for example servicing plans, keeping of spare parts, ordering procedures, etc. The business management aspects of a technical installation can also be handled in a separate system. There, the detailed production costs can be calculated for example, these costs arising as a result of boundary conditions such as costs of raw materials, personnel, transport and machine running times, and calculations for cost optimization may also be carried out, for example. The systems of the technical installation that have been mentioned are to be understood as given by way of example, and it is also possible to use a series of further systems, or else fewer individual systems.
It is customary to divide the tasks of a technical installation among a number of specialized systems in this way. However, this involves the difficulty of tracing the underlying cause of an event reported by one of the system, since the information on the operating state of the technical installation is distributed among a number of systems and it is generally necessary to change between a number of systems in order for example to trace the message of a fault back to its underlying triggering causes.